Few elected representatives to lowest wages: Telangana fares poorly on NITI Aayog's Gender Equality Index

Telangana ranks 23rd in sustainable development goals (SDG) of Gender Equality among the 28 states. Overall Telangana scores 41, while Chhattisgarh scores 64, the highest in this category. Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry top scores with 68 and 66 respectively.

SDG for Gender Equality calls for ending all forms of violence, trafficking, and sexual exploitation of women and girls. Recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work is a key component of this goal with emphasis on the importance of full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life for women.

Around 46.10 women per lakh women have experienced cruelty/physical violence by a husband or his relatives, while the crime rate against women is 99.3 per 1,00,000 female population.

In Telangana Rs 0.68 earned by females to Re 1 earned by males is the average wage/salary received by salaried employees. Also, there is only 0.52 female per male is the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in the age group of 15-59 years.

Only 5.04 percent of women have been elected to state legislative assembly, while 5.88 percent of women have been elected to parliament 128 women hold managerial positions including women on board of directors, in listed companies (per 1,000 persons).

However, one of the good things about the state is that 88.2 Percentage of currently married women aged 15-49 years have their demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods. 50.35 percent of seats held by women in Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Also, 23 percent of females operated operational land holdings in the state. In the state, 96.23 percent of schools have separate toilet facilities for girls.

According to SDG data, for every 1,00,000 female population in India, about 62 cases of crime were reported in 2019. The highest rate of crime against women was witnessed in Assam at about 178, followed by the UT of Delhi at 144 crimes per 1,00,000 female population. The lowest rate of crimes against women was in Nagaland at about 4 crimes per 1,00,000 female population followed by the UT of Puducherry at 12 crimes per 1,00,000 female population.

On an average, 8.46 percent of seats in the State Legislative Assemblies are held by women. The target is to have 50 percent of the seats held by men and women each. No State/UT has achieved this target yet. Among the Legislative Assemblies in the country, Chhattisgarh has the highest representation of women at 14.44 percent followed by West Bengal at 13.61 percent. Nagaland and Mizoram are the worst performers with no women representation.

For every 1,000 persons in managerial positions (including the position of Board of Director in listed companies) 190 are women. The target to be achieved is at least 245 women in managerial positions for every 1,000 persons. Puducherry recorded the highest value at 615 women in managerial positions for every 1,000 persons. Meghalaya (111) and Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh recorded the lowest values (100) in the country.